As a professional car reviewer and a recent Subaru owner, I am always a little surprised at the exuberance everyone else seems to have for the brand. I’m not alone. Many, if not most, of my automotive peers seem to feel this way. Yet, talk to a regular person and the feelings they have for Subaru are strong. Talk to a new Subaru owner and those feelings are even stronger. I call this the “Subaru Effect.”
I was reminded of the Subaru Effect this morning when I saw that Consumer Reports named Subaru as its overall #1 brand, beating out BMW. How did it happen? It’s worth going deeper into both the Consumer Reports methodology and Subaru’s approach to the car market for this morning’s Morning Dump. Similarly, people tend to think of electric cars as simpler and more reliable, but reality and expectation are quite far apart as Consumer Reports found in a recent study.
Tesla has its own aura, though the light from that aura seems to be dimming a bit and so Tesla is aggressively leasing vehicles to try and keep its sales going. This will probably work for a while, though we’re going to run into a shortage of buyers until batteries or infrastructure get better. Infrastructure is slow, so perhaps new battery tech is the answer.
Happy Friday, let’s do this.
Subarus Are Just Well-Marketed Economy Cars, But That’s Ok
Do people love Subarus because “loving” a Subaru was a key part of the company’s marketing for the last decade, or is the advertising an actual reflection of the company’s user base toward the brand? I’m genuinely not sure.
The arc of Subaru in my lifetime is fascinating. As a child, my grandfather had a reliable Subaru wagon he used to drive me up and down the Texas coast. It was just a decent economy car. As a teenager, the rally exploits of Colin McRae helped make the Bugeye WRX the car to own… and eventually crash into a tree. Somewhere around college the brand somehow came to represent both flat-billed AWD enthusiasts and the outdoorsy/crunchy/granola REI Co-op set.
While the company still does make a WRX and even a BRZ, it’s now mostly a brand for normal people who want an economy car that doesn’t necessarily feel like an economy car. It’s quite brilliant, really, and it continues to work. Put AWD and some body cladding on an economy car, give it a little lift, and suddenly everyone who wants to kayak buys one. The brand also cleverly plays this up as it gives a ton of money to national parks and animal foundations. By not being a car for everyone, like Toyota or Honda, the brand has been able to cultivate a perception that’s attractive to a ton of buyers.
It even worked on me as, in 2016, I purchased a Subaru Forester as a family car that was safe enough, had AWD, and wasn’t too expensive.
The first couple of years were fine, though I eventually came to regret buying it due to its poor fuel economy, boring driving characteristics, and a seemingly endless series of small but expensive or annoying repairs it needed. Based on talking to other older Subaru owners I’m not alone in this, though there are plenty of Subaru owners who did not have this experience. This might be a case where I’m in the minority.
This might explain how Subaru went to the top of the Consumer Reports brand list, where it replaces BMW as the top brand by a single point. The rest of the top five are Lexus, Porsche, and Honda. At the bottom are Dodge, GMC, Land Rover, Rivian, and Jeep.
How does CR put this list together? Here’s the publication’s explanation:
We rank automakers based on their vehicles’ average Overall Score—a combination of our road-test scores, safety ratings, and predicted reliability and owner satisfaction data. This provides a definitive number to help consumers see which brands shine and which might be best avoided.
I want to note a couple of things here because I know the people at CR and have visited the company’s test facility in Connecticut. Many of the contributors and editors are sharp drivers, experienced wrenchers, and owners of quirky old cars. That’s not necessarily the CR audience, so the rankings are skewed toward the average CR member, which someone on Reddit described as “a support group for people who are bored out of their minds by their cars” yesterday.
Maybe, but CR has a huge readership to survey and buys the cars that it tests, going to great lengths to disguise themselves so automakers can’t send them a specific vehicle. Enthusiasts might not agree with the rankings, but the publication’s methods are unique in this industry.
[Ed Note: Consumer reports scores are a big deal in the Auto Industry. One of the strangest moments in my engineering career happened when I poked fun at Consumer Reports during a meeting in which an engineer was discussing us (i.e. Fiat Chrysler) making sure that we designed our vehicle to satisfy a Consumer Reports metric (yes, automakers design their cars around CR testing!). I, a car enthusiast, said something like “We really want to design our car based on boring Consumer Reports,” and the engineer (an older guy) said something along the lines: “If you don’t understand the importance of Consumer Reports, let’s go outside right now and I’ll show you the importance of Consumer Reports.” I think the guy wanted to fight me for me poking fun at CR? It was extremely, extremely weird. -DT].
Looking more closely at Subaru you can get a sense of why the brand ranks so highly. First up, the brand’s road test score is high. Again, let’s go to CR to explain:
“The road-test score is an amalgam of a model’s driving experience. It factors in power delivery, handling agility, braking performance, ride comfort, noise isolation, seat comfort, controls’ ease of use, and fuel economy,” says Gabe Shenhar, associate director of Consumer Reports’ auto test program. “For EVs, the score also reflects range, charging time, and ease of plugging and unplugging. Brands that produce well-rounded vehicles that are capable in multiple areas are ranked highly.”
Subaru doesn’t make a lot of big, heavy crossovers and trucks, and instead makes fairly comfortable cars that handle reasonably well. While this may be skewed towards normal drivers, the lack of bigger and heavier vehicles has clearly helped Subaru’s road test score average. Other brands in the top four are BMW, Audi, and Porsche. Chrysler, which only makes the Pacifica, is also up here in sixth, so that tells you how these measures are weighted.
While reliability varies a lot from model to model, Subaru doesn’t make a lot of different vehicles and there’s a lot of platform sharing. Owners of Subaru who are CR members report the fewest issues after purchase, so Subaru is now at the top of the rankings for “Predicted Reliability,” ahead of Toyota, Lexus, Honda, and Acura. When it comes to used-car brand reliability, Subaru ranked much lower at 9th, which is a little closer to my experience. On “Overall Satisfaction” Subaru also only came in 8th, being great at nothing, but good enough at everything.
This is a kind of amusing outcome and goes to show what level the idea of a car matters more than the reality of the car and that the “Subaru Effect” is strong. People who just bought Subarus report few issues and are excited about the prospect of owning a Subaru. Overall, though, people who have had a Subaru for a while are less satisfied than BMW or even Chevy owners. Even more amusingly, used Subaru owners, on average, end up with a “reliability verdict” worse than Nissan, Volvo, and Buick.
And while Subaru isn’t the most economical car company when you look at individual models, the lack of trucks does mean that Subaru’s CO2 footprint is relatively low. The addition of Toyota’s hybrid systems to Subaru vehicles will be a huge improvement here.
Subaru got mad at us when we pointed out the Crosstrek Wilderness had the wimpiest skid plate you’ll ever see, even if we liked the vehicle overall. That was a car enthusiast complaint as clearly there are a lot of Subaru owners who are just Subaru enthusiasts (the brand is selling well). You know what? There’s nothing wrong with that. People being enthusiastic about their vehicles is what this place is about, right? [Ed Note: There’s a fascinating book titled “Where The Suckers Moon” all about how Subaru built its powerful brand starting with a cheap, tinny little mini-car from Japan. Worth a read! -DT].
I think “love” does really make a Subaru a Subaru. Soon after buying a Subaru I also became an REI Co-op member and bought a big tent and started going camping. Was I brainwashed? Maybe. Sometimes a little brainwashing is nice.
PHEVs And EVs Still Have Reliability Issues According To Consumer Reports
There’s this idea that electric cars, having less complicated drivelines, are somehow less likely to break than their gasoline counterparts. That’s not quite true. Companies have been making gasoline cars for 100+ years and have gotten quite good at it. Electric cars are new and there are basically no startups making ICE-powered cars, meaning that most of the new startup car companies are making EVs.
From Consumer Reports again:
“While they remain extremely fuel-efficient, today’s hybrids also deliver reliability that is similar to conventional gas cars, despite their added complexity,“ Fisher says. On average, hybrids have a similar number of problems as cars powered by internal combustion engines (ICE).
[…]
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are more of a mixed bag. As a category, they have 70 percent more problems than ICE vehicles. The ability to drive locally solely on electricity but still take long trips without range worries makes PHEVs attractive. But having two distinct powertrains—electric and an internal combustion engine—increases the chance for problems.
Several PHEVs are even less reliable than their conventional counterparts, such as the Mazda CX-90 PHEV, which scored well below average, while the regular CX-90 is below average. The BMW X5 PHEV, Lexus NX PHEV, and Toyota Prius PHEV each score just average, while the regular X5, NX, NX hybrid, and Prius all score above average.
Overall, CR found that PHEVs had 70% more problems than ICE or HEV counterparts, while EVs had 42% more problems. This is an improvement over previous numbers for both powertrains as companies get better at making these vehicles. Rivian, which is a startup, had by far the worst reliability.
Tesla Is Getting Into The Leasing Game To Juke Sales
While Tesla once had what amounted to a monopoly on EVs in the United States, the brand now suddenly has a lot more competition. As you can see in the graphic above, one of the ways brands get curious buyers into electric cars is leasing.
The Inflation Reduction Act also helps. One of the giveaways to the auto industry in the IRA was the ability for automakers to take $7,500 off any electric car that’s leased with no restrictions on where the vehicle comes from, what it costs, or how much money the customer has. This has been huge.
In an effort to keep its market share, Tesla has aggressively cut prices and offered extremely low financing (the company is super rich and can afford these activities). Now, Tesla is trying to make leasing more attractive by allowing people to buy out their leases, whereas before Tesla leasees had to return their cars.
“Tesla’s lease penetration has gone way up,” said Tom Libby, a senior analyst at S&P Global Mobility. “They are getting more and more aggressive because they need to — and because they have the financial resources to do so.”
Leasing a Tesla seems like a good deal, especially given that Tesla values vary so much due to all the price-cutting and the risk of a new model. This is all part of a growing trend of Tesla saying it isn’t going to be a normal car company and then doing more normal car company things.
Does SSB + SIB = The Future Of EVs?
Lithium batteries in either NCM or LFP form will continue to dominate the car market for years to come, but perhaps there’s something better than cells or pouches filled with lithium-based liquid electrolytes.
S&P Global Mobility has a “BRIEFcase” paper out today about the possibility that both sodium-based batteries (SIB) and solid-state batteries (SSB) could provide the market with what it needs to get that next level of penetration. Sodium is cheap and abundant and SSBs are more energy-dense, though both technologies have drawbacks:
SIBs are likely to compete with LFP batteries, as their energy density is approximately 160 Wh/kg, compared to around 200 Wh/kg for LFP. This lower energy density, alongside a shorter life cycle, limits SIBs primarily to low-cost, entry-level vehicles.
[…]
Despite the advantages, several hurdles exist for SSB adoption. The use of lithium metal anodes, which can lead to uneven plating and dendrite formation, poses risks to battery integrity. Additionally, solid electrolytes are less conductive, potentially limiting power output, especially in colder conditions. In some cases, external heating is necessary, particularly with polymer electrolytes.
SSBs are also five times more expensive than lithium-ion batteries, though with time that price will come down. Sodium batteries will also likely improve as more investment goes into them.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Is it weird that my favorite version of Alice In Wonderland might be the version portrayed in the video for “Don’t Come Around Here No More” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers? The book is super messed up if you take the time to read it and this video captures both the disorientation and the creepiness quite well.
The Big Question
What do you consider to be the overall best car brand selling cars in America right now?
I’ve had a Subaru Crosstrek for 6 years; no problems. Replaced the brake pads last year and some of the rubber suspension parts are rotting out due to road salt, which seems early to me as it only has 50k miles on it, but otherwise no problems. I bought it because I wanted a manual transmission in a smaller vehicle I could take onto some dirt roads for hunting but would primarily live on the highway; the options I found were the Crosstrek and the Jeep Renegade. I liked the car-feel of the Crosstrek more than the boxiness of the Renegade, plus I didn’t read anything good about Fiat/Jeep reliability so Crosstrek it was. Would I buy another Subaru? Perhaps, but I’m planning on keeping this one for a long while because I don’t think I’ll be finding many manual transmissions in the future.
I never got the Subaru obsession, unless we’re talking about people that upgrade back to new every few years. All of the people I know who bought used ended up having problems, sometimes really pricey ones.
One buddy who just had to have an Outback had me work on it. There was always something to contend with and being a long-time hobby-wrencher for friends and family as well as having owned 73 of my own vehicles, it’s amazing to think that Outback has been my least favorite to work on out of all of them. I was quite happy when he finally got tired of dealing with the never-ending stream of issues. He’s been driving a Honda ever since.
Another buddy bought a used one just a few years back, mid-pandemic used car pricing and all. Sunk cost fallacy caused him to pay that inflated purchase price twice after replacing the engine shortly after purchase. I think he still has it, but it doesn’t get mentioned in polite conversation.
My mother-in-law had spent $8900 on a used ’09 Impreza that was actually a lot of fun to drive. It was fine for about a year before it started leaking oil. Her long-time local mechanic came back with a bill of over 5K to fix the oil leak and a few other things they found issues with causing her to sell it. Bought a Nissan Rogue that she thinks is the best thing ever.
The one guy I know that did drive one from new until the wheels fell off had a long commute and was always complaining about his gas mileage (it was one of the mid 2000’s wagon-types, likely an Outback). He junked it at 250,000 following it’s second time around needing head gaskets. It was also on its second transmission by that point. He’s been driving a Honda ever since.
Subaru… they certainly make cars available for purchase.
I have a soft spot for Subaru, despite my negative experiences. I shared a 2007 B9 Tribeca and later a 2015 Outback with my sisters, and the Outback went on to become my first car. The Tribeca was ugly, but reasonably spacious and had the fantastic EZ30 engine. It ended up having a cascade of drivetrain problems and we had to get rid of it around 150k miles. The Outback was great in a lot of ways, with all of the storage space that comes with a wagon and a ride height where you don’t need to worry about curbs or speed bumps. However, it was completely gutless, the CVT decided to eat itself at 100k, and it had an oil leak into the wiring harness that would’ve required an expensive engine-out service to fix. Now I’ve got a 2022 Mazda3 hatchback, and I love a lot of things about it. It’s compact, fast enough, handles very well, and can still carry some cargo. Adjusting to the lower ride height has been a process but aside from that I don’t have any complaints.
I’m really not sure how people with eyes buy Subarus. Especially the new ones with gold plastic random accents, WTF is that?? Ugliest cars on the road. By far.
As someone who used to work in a Subaru store, I can fully say that it is a cult on the level of Volvo and Saab. In fact, we traded a fair number of late model Volvos on new Outbacks and Ascents on a shocking scale. We were also cross-shopped with Volvo more than any other brand, even when similar sized vehicles had a $10k pricing discrepancy.
The owners were all well monied, high credit, highly educated and typically knew all about the brand’s commitment to animal and conservation charities.
I’ve worked for Honda, Hyundai, Chevrolet, Nissan, Kia, Lincoln and Ford, but none of those brands come close to the level of love that Subaru owners genuinely feel towards that brand.
Even in the late ’90s, a lot of people thought Subaru was Swedish. Friends of the family owned a car dealership and two of their brands were Saab and Subaru, which had a very similar clientele.
There was, at one point, a Saab that was a rebadged Subaru WRX with a nicer interior.
check it out.
“The Saab 9-2X is a five-door, five-passenger wagon with a front engine and four-wheel drive. It was produced from 2005–2006.”
That was a little after our friend’s franchises were sold off. I thought the rebadge was funny at the time because of the often noted confusion and it seemed like a pretty smart move, though I guess it wasn’t exactly a smash hit.
Saabaru!
I have a friend who has a Saabaru with some sort of swap in it, possibly the engine from an STI?
That would be a likely candidate… due to the Subaru’s LEGO-like compatibility.
We bought one when they were new. This was when GM owned Saab and part of Subaru and was having their toe-tag sale which resulted in $6,000 off no-haggle advertised corporate discounts on the Saabaru. THis resulted in making the 9-2X Aero (turbo) cheaper than the Subaru WRX equivalent with leather seats and some minor styling revisions that made them a little more upmarket looking, identical powertrain. Good car, pure Subaru at a discount price and with a longer warranty.
Be careful looking at one now, they all had the Takata airbags, make sure they were replaced.
Starred for ‘toe-tag sale’.
As a fan of both old Subarus (own two Legacy wagons, also had a Loyale) and old Volvos (grew up in 145/265 wagons), it’s not at all surprising that they are cross shopped. They both have the same size wagons with the same interior configuration and car/not truck-based wagon. To me a Legacy wagon or Volvo wagon is my favorite size and shape of car.
If you were to give me $100-200K to spend on a car, I’d rather it spend modifying a second gen Legacy wagon to an extreme degree Mighty Car Mods-style/Vermont Sports Car-style blend than buy a Porsche/BMW/Mercedes, etc.
Easy. Subaru sells cars how we remember them. Slow, low windowlines with lots of glass, decent ground clearance, and relatively comfortable. In contrast many other brands are going all-in on sporty styling, stiff suspensions, and gunslit DLOs. I think marketers are totally out of touch and don’t realize that most people just want the same car they already have, only slightly nicer and newer. They don’t want something totally radical and different.
subaru still has the best marketing. i love their commercials with dogs and family. watching some of the other car maker commercials, you see how little effort was put into writing it (i.e. Lexus christmas commercials, nissan truck commercials, etc). I don’t own any subarus currently but I’ve had quite a few in the past and haven’t really had all the issues that put talk about with head gaskets and other bs. Maybe I’m lucky, or maybe I just tend to check oil and do maintenance at the time of or before it is usually due. I also don’t believe it when manufacturers claim lifetime fluid.
I’ve noticed the Subaru Effect experience for years, although never had a name to put to it. When I ask a Subaru owner how they like their car, they will invariably say “I love it! I’ve only had to…” and then provide a laundry list of repairs. Is it a diagnosable condition? Stockholm Syndrome+Subaru=Stockbaru Syndrome?
VW owners, too. My old Subarus weren’t like that at all, but there’s (several) a reason(s) I stopped buying them (OK, I have a GR86, which is very minimally Toyota, but it doesn’t have AWD and Subaru seems completely uninterested in actually selling the BRZ).
Between three Subarus (two I still have) I’ve had 30+ years ownership. I love them. I haven’t had to do any unexpected repairs/just wear/age items that wear out on every car. Haven’t had to do a head gasket repair. Also, my parents have had 22 years between two Subarus, with the only notable issue being needing new catalytic converters on one of them. Not bad for 52+ years of combined ownership.
As others have noted, Subaru is good at selling affordable, aspirational vehicles. I know plenty of Subaru owners who own them because of the AWD and the idea that if they ever need to drive on a forest road they can without issue. That’s not something any other brand can really claim, even if it doesn’t directly relate to the quality of the vehicles.
As for Consumer Reports, I am constantly amused by folks who swear by it in every and all circumstances. We have one such friend who derided us just yesterday for considering a three-row crossover that is generally well regarded but the specific year go dumped on by CR because of touch controls for the volume instead of a knob. Literally nothing else was changed, aside from the touch screen, between a highly-rated model year and the “terrible, cannot recommend” year we are looking at. I tried to explain the nuance that CR completely missed, but there is no explaining to some of the CR diehards.
There have been some issues lately, but I’d still bank on Toyota over the competition.
Honda seems to be 2 steps behind and 2 grand more expensive but in some cases makes some compelling alternatives to the Toyota offerings. But I get why Subaru is popular – it’s basic transportation with a bit of flair. I miss what they used to be (when WRXs didn’t have stupid cladding and came in a hatchback) but I understand why the Crosstrek (which is by all accounts a small hatchback, something Americans seem to hate) and Forester (really hard to beat the bang-for-the-buck in cargo volume) are so popular.
Same. I’m referencing decade-ish-old models here, but my dad’s Sienna, my Prius, and a sibling’s Corolla all have me singing their praises…so far.
I haven’t liked new Subarus since at least 2004 because they went all in on being Honda in hiking boots. Subaru was not at their most successful but at their best in the late ’90s. That lineup of Legacy, Impreza, Forester, Sambar, and Vivio was great and didn’t overlap. In the U.S. we haven’t experienced it, but in the rest of the world half the Subarus in the lineup are rebadged Daihatsus and Toyotas, some of which overlap with the Legacy and some of which overlap the Impreza. The U.S. is different only because we’re gullible enough to just buy the Impreza in three different suits. Subaru has achieved market success but arguably Subaru has not thrived, if that makes any sense.
That year mark is very interesting to me as a year to start disliking Subaru. That is the first year they offered an STI in the US, and that generation (through ’07) has demonstrated incredible holding of resale value. I believe that is easily the most beloved generation of all Subaru’s, at least in the US. I personally drive an ’06 Saabaru Turbo. But you can easily buy 2014 STI for the same or less than an ’07, at least where I am.
Also, the Legacy turbo wagon could be with a stick until ’05 or ’06.
05 only with the manual wagon.
I tried to buy a WRX hatchback in 2011 but was deterred by Michigan insurance being more per month than the car payment. When they got rid of the hatchback WRX is when I stopped truly being interested in a Subaru, but a little more pep in the base Crosstrek (and a manual) could sway me.
My recommendation (for that generation, and the one before it, especially) is to look at the Forester XT. Cheaper insurance, same drivetrain, better maintained because the owners are generally more careful and consistent.
The FXT from 09-13 didn’t come with a manual, but the 04-08 did. Fun to drive, and doesn’t attract Imperial attention like the WRX.
A single model does not make for a healthy company. The main problem I’ve had is that Subaru tried to go upscale (fourth generation Legacy, the third generation Forester, the Tribeca) and failed, which put them in a precarious position during one of the worst times for the automotive industry. After getting through that they pulled back and tried to go “rugged” instead, doubling down on the image vehicles like the Baja and Legacy Outback built. Subaru has hyperspecialized themselves into that “rugged” niche, and when the environment changes hyperspecialized species are the first to go. Subarus of the ’70s through ’90s were just competent low end cars that also happened to have an AWD version, meaning they could easily weather any major changes.
I like them, like the way they drive and have owned many of them in the past. I literally bought a house in cash with the money I made flipping Subarus with bad head gaskets. So I’m really familiar with them. They are not reliable cars and never have been. They are great in the snow. Now that I live in Florida we don’t need awd and don’t want to deal with all the issues, so no more Subarus.
Deep in Upstate NY, for the most part if it’s not a truck, it’s a Subaru. Subaru has mastered a few different things that have come to allow their dominance here:
1) Marketing – Everyone knows how they’ve managed to bring positive vibes to the brand, there’s not much else to be said here.
2) Dealers – Our local Subaru dealers are simply far, far better to deal with than other economy brands. Maybe that’s not the case in other areas, but our particular dealer is independent, and there’s a legion of people locally who won’t buy a car from literally anyone else. They’ve managed to cultivate a Saturn-like level of customer loyalty. Hyundai/Kia? Take notice.
3) Reliability. Yeah we all know some of the trouble spots that Subarus have had over the years, from head-gaskets to CVTs. But for the most part, nobody I know have had these issues over the past 10 years, and I know A LOT of people with Subarus. They get their reputation by word of mouth. And since they only offer 3 different powertrains at any given time, and involve tons of platform and parts-sharing, you don’t get too many disaster models that drag some other brands down.
Point 2 cannot be overstated. I bought during Covid and the Subaru dealer would absolutely not go above MSRP when every other dealer was trying to squeeze $3k or more over. It was also so painless compared to, say, a Kia dealer experience. I think the tendency for people to be loyal to Subaru also translates into loyalty to the local dealer and people like that, too, even if you aren’t getting the same sales person 10 years later.
The funny thing is, most of the salespeople at our dealer are there 10 years later. My wife bought her Forester 6 years ago, and referred my sister to the same salesperson we had last month. I went with my sister when she was testing Imprezas (she rolled right up to my house when test driving, as they let customers test drive just about as long as you’d like, alone) and they were having a dog adoption event, replete with catering. I recognized most of the salespeople in that office from 6 years ago. It’s a totally different environment from the “we’ve misplaced your trade-in keys” CDJR dealer down the road, as an example.
Add to that, all-weather capability. Subarus are everywhere in the Snow Belt of the US, because they were, for the longest time, one of a very few choices for an economical and reasonably comfortable car with four-wheel drive. There’s a reason why Subaru eventually dropped 2WD cars; the 4WD-optioned ones were outselling them significantly.
Now add in the above and even in the face of increasing competition of AWD crossovers, Subaru has a longstanding leg up in the Snow Belt market.
A lot of it started in the 80s when Subaru was really working on gaining market share, and somebody asked what was a good car that could handle the snow and wasn’t a big SUV or a Jeep. Just a car that could handle the weather. The typical answer was, “Have you looked at Subarus?” And things just stuck that way. It helped that Subaru was Japanese — as buyers looked to imports for their reputation for reliability and economy, Subaru was right there with the bonus of all-weather traction. And once somebody brought one into the family, it just became inevitable that its replacement would wind up being another Subaru because there really weren’t a lot of practical alternatives. So in the Snow Belt, Subarus are kind of the Default Everyday Car for a lot of people.
Oh absolutely. They were first on the AWD bandwagon, and they’re known for it. Sure AWD is available on most cars now, but Subaru has the reputation that the others don’t have.
They also have a certain hiking shoe aesthetic that blends in around here. And for people calling them ugly (they often are to be fair) but then recommending a Toyota as the alternative, come on, lol.
I made the Alice cake from that video a few years ago for a friend’s Halloween party. I’ve always loved Tom Petty and knew exactly what my friend wanted when he asked. His wife was the Alice in the cake and he was the Petty version of the Mad Hatter, maroon top hat and all. Maybe only half a dozen people got the reference, but for those that did it was amazing. Maybe the hardest cake I’ve ever made, but certainly it was the most personally rewarding.
times like these I’m bummed we don’t have photos in the comments
Why is that btw, some other sites allow at least one photo, usually at a small thumbnail size that enlarges when clicked on. It would be helpful to be able to sort comments from oldest to newest (or reverse) as well, some people come back after a time and scrolling through the same comments gets old. I realize you’re not the guy programming this, but it’s almost 2025, not 1999 anymore. 🙂
I test-drove a base Impreza 5-door a few months ago, because Subaru was selling them for around $23k. It seemed like a compelling offer for a small hatchback.
Until I drove it. There isn’t a single good thing about the car. Not that it’s in any way bad, either, but I could not get excited about it in any way that made me want to plunk down the dough.
Wouldn’t sodium batteries make a lot more sense for applications where weight doesn’t matter that much and charging cycles are smoother?
Say, home backup batteries.
With all due respect, I think Subaru has Well-Marketed Affordable AWD vehicles. The best Subaru MPG is from a hybrid at 35. Otherwise, the Impreza manages 30.
For economy cars, managing only 30 without hybrid tech isn’t really that much in “economy”, is it not?
Ehh, it’s better than a pickup or a lot of other off roady CUV’s.
I mean, yeah, but those aren’t “economy trucks” or “economy off-roady CUV’s”, if that makes sense?
Subarus aren’t appreciably cheaper than a Bronco Sport or RAV4. Both of which have very good AWD systems.
Subaru now occupies the same market niche that VW did fifty years ago. They are the anti-car, the chosen vehicle for those who don’t like cars very much. They don’t value normal automobile attributes such as performance or fuel economy. And comfort, forget that: we’re all backpackers here!
Take my daughter as an example. I brought her up right, taught her first driving lessons in an Audi Allroad before it inevitably imploded. Then we helped her buy a Ford hybrid, which she spoon traded back to us for our VW Tiguan. After that was lost in a wreck, she just had to have a Forester. It fit her image, as a grad of a PNW college whose teams are called the Loggers. And she’d seen all those emotive ads about dogs and love and the only car that will protect your loved ones. In the past three years, her Forester has given her minor troubles, showing an appetite for batteries and headlight bulbs.
When I asked her after the purchase, “How do you like the car?”, there was a long pause before she said, “Well, I’ll keep it for a few years and pay down the loan.Then maybe I’ll get something electric.”
Yup, Subaru is the Coors Light of cars – just as Coors Light is the beer for people who don’t actually like beer, Subarus are the cars for people that don’t actually care about cars.
My mom has been a Consumer Reports reader for 50 years. She bought a Subaru Forester because it was the #1 car for old people.
I guess she was right when it gave its life to save hers when she was T-boned in the drivers door. I had to go to the scrap yard to clean it out later. It was the most violent crash-wrecked car I’ve ever known someone to be involved in. Unbelievable the amount of damage when the guts of a car are exposed.
After 3 weeks in hospital to full recovery, I certainly appreciate the safety features in Subarus. Maybe all modern cars would be the same but I was stunningly impressed.
When I lived in northern New England, if you asked anybody what was a safe, dependable car, you’d invariably get back two brands: Volvo and Subaru.
In Berkeley CA, You’d think Volvo and Subarus have 45% of the market for cars. 🙂 … it helps they don’t change their design very much so a 5 year old pretty much looks like a current one …
Crash test organizations still tend to like Subarus.
Subarus have the gained a similar reputation to Carhart clothing. It’s not fancy, stylish or the most well made. But, they get the job done without any perceived pretentiousness.
Similar to the GTI in Europe, Subarus don’t have a class perception. Doctors drive Subarus, college kids drive Subarus, grandmas drive Subarus. It’s all marketing but damn do they nail it.
Used
I believe it was Regular Car Reviews who said this, but even for the average consumer, cars are a sort of Avatar that we put on to outwardly show who we are and what we stand for. Subaru is the absolute best at this. Their vehicles with AWD and CVTs are no more capable off-road than any other competitor in it’s class, they’re slower, and more cheaply built, but they *look* adventurous. Their marketing signals the virtues of the company, and screams “Owning a Subaru shows you’re a good person, that you care, that you are adventurous, that you’re cool”
It really seems like Subaru sales are continuing skyrocketing in the light of social media influencers espousing vanlife, hiking, and national parks, things that the average consumer think’s they’re into, but in reality don’t do as often as they *think* they do. Subaru realized why Wrangler owners were so die-hard, and made a vehicle that has the image of one, but all of the conveniences and compromises of a mainstream vehicle and it freaking worked
Subaru used to be a religion in my part of Alaska, but with the nearest automotive dealership of any kind being over 130 miles away and no real local repair shops, reliability is key. Now that Toyota is offering an increasing array of AWD vehicles, I’m seeing several former Subaru owners now driving Toyotas.
Personally, I don’t own or like them. I’ve trailered enough of them for friends and offered up my garage for engine replacements and don’t need to any more Subaru exposure. I have received some as rentals and noticed that as long as they are driven like my mother-in-law would, you would never notice the CVT or the poor driving dynamics; they drive/feel nice enough in that 7/10th mode.
“S&P Global Mobility has a “BRIEFcase” paper out today about the possibility that both sodium-based batteries (SIB) and solid-state batteries (SSB) could provide the market with what it needs to get that next level of penetration.”
Something about this sentence placed under that picture from Toyota just feels weird.
Matt needed to insert a plug for new battery technologies.
Yeah, what’s the big deal? I needed to get to the bottom of this story.
My BRAT currently has no brakes, doesn’t like to idle, has to pull gas from a jerry can, has a wobbly steering wheel, a questionable clutch, plenty of rust under the bed, and a pretty beat up driver’s side.
It was really the skid plate that sold me on it. And the experience. Love is definitely holding it together. Not sure what’s holding the tailgate up, tho. Definitely not the latch.